Obama Administration will raise the risk of a terrorist attack: Cheney

Washington, Mar 16 (ANI): Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that the Obama Administration will raise the risk of a terrorist attack by overhauling his predecessors approach to the War on Terror. Cheney criticized President Barck Obamas decisions to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, limit the methods CIA officers use to interrogate terror suspects and suspend military tribunals for alleged terrorists, saying those decisions taken together will make Americans less safe. He warned that the administration was transitioning to a pre-9/11 mindset that views terrorism as a law enforcement problem and not a military threat, FOX News reported. When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what theyre doing … they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that’’s required, and that concept of military threat that is essential if you”re going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks, Cheney said on CNNs State of the Union. He said the Bush Administrations tough anti-terrorism policies were absolutely essential to the militarys ability to gather the intelligence that helped foil all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. Cheney added: President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack. Obama has suspended military trials for suspected terrorists and announced he will close the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as overseas sites where the CIA has held some detainees. The President also ordered CIA interrogators to abide by the US Army Field Manuals regulations for treatment of detainees and denounced waterboarding, part of the Bush program of enhanced interrogation, as torture. (ANI)